In the past 10 years, the Minnesota Twins, so it might seem, have enjoyed some success against teams from the west coast, and have, historically, been pretty bad against east coast teams (especially those pesky Yankees).
Over the past 10 years, since 2001, the Twins have won just under 55% of their games. But really, how have they fared against the east and west coasts, and how does that compare to teams in the middle of the country? Well, I decided to take a look. For the purposes of this study, lets say that The Diamondbacks, Rockies, Angels, Dodgers, Athletics, Padres, Giants and Mariners all count as west coast teams. The Braves, Orioles, Red Sox, Marlins, Mets, Yankees, Pirates, Rays, Blue Jays, and Nationals count as east coast teams. That leaves the Cubs, White Sox, Reds, Indians, Tigers, Astros, Royals, Brewers, Rangers, and Cardinals in what is more or less, the central part of the MLB.
So how do things shake out? Well the Twins only have a losing record against six ball clubs: the Red Sox (32-33), the Angels (41-49), The Giants (4-5), the Blue Jays (32-46), the Cardinals, (2-4), and the Yankees (21-49). 3 East Coast teams, 2 West Coast teams, and a team in the Central. The Twins have a winning record against the other 23 teams, pretty impressive. And they are undefeated against the Cincinnati Reds in the past decade (3-0)!
Against teams in the center of the MLB, the Twins are 148 games over .500, playing .576 baseball. Pulling lots of wins from the Royals, Tigers, and White Sox, as you might expect. And despite the sad state of the Cleveland Indians of recent memory, the Twins are only 5 games over .500 aganist the Tribe. Not too bad.
Against teams from the western part of the MLB, the Twins are just 10 games over .500, winning 51.4% of their ball games, 175-165. Most surprising in this bunch is that against the Mariners, the Twins are just a single game over the waterline, 49-48. And the Twins haven’t played particularly well against any team out West, being at best 6 games better than Oakland in 98 contests, and 6 games better than the Padres, in just 9 contests.
Against teams from the eastern part of the MLB, the Twins are 21 games under .500, 204-225, playing just .475 baseball, a full 101 points worse than against central foes. While this seems pretty bad, against the Yankees alone, the Twins are 28 games worse, so against the rest of the east coast the Twins actually find themselves 7 games ahead! The teams the Twins have faced most on the east coast, Orioles, Red Sox, Yankees, Rays and Blue Jays, the Twins only sport a winning record against the Orioles. But, the Twins pick up a lot of wins in interleague play, owning winning records against the Braves, Marlins, Mets, Phillies, Pirates and Nationals.
Head to head, the Twins have winning records against 6/8 west coast teams, 7/11 east coast teams, and 9/10 central teams.
I’m not sure what any of this means, but I’ll be glad when the Twins are back at home next week playing the White Sox.
Don’t forget we’re running a promotion here at the pond, giving away a 1991 Minnesota Twins World Series Championship DVD Box Set.
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